Another Life Time
by emstar1-1
Summary: The story of Hope and Vanille's love, the story of a love that spanned whole life times.


Here is my latest (and first) one shot - Another Life time (that fated person) So yep, here's a Vanille X Hope for you all to enjoy!

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Final Fantasy, but if I did then 13-3 would be about Vanope children! Then again... there's still Hope for Lightning returns (see what I did there? ^_~) (Edit: Sadly not, other wise there'd be a hefty dose of pedophile O.o)

Oh- the title. So, in the Japanese version of the scene with Vanille and Hope, instead of saying 'In another life time', she says 'じゃ、生まれる前!' Which (in this context) means: 'Well, before you were born!" So there, there we go! I knew there was a good reason for playing the Japanese version and giving myself huge language induced headaches! But hey, my Japanese is pretty nifty now!

Enjoy!

* * *

生まれる前  
あの運命の人

Another life time.

That fated person.

-17 1/2 years ago-

The morning sun began to rise in one of the open Oerbian houses. A baby was sleeping soundly, cradled in it's mother's soft, tanned arms.

"She's beautiful, just like her mother." A man with warm green eyes and dirty blonde hair said to the woman sitting next to him. The woman blushed and giggled.

"She has your eyes, she'll capture any man she wishes with eyes like that." The woman with waist length orange hair and bright blue eyes said.

"Yes... I suppose she will" They both stared at their 6 month old daughter. The two parents, Oerba Dia Saffrona and Oerba Yun Basile were charged with an offense that lead to death, but would be covered up by the council. The loving parents had to leave their only child to the mercy of the cruel world - Gran Pulse; hell on earth it was nicknamed.

"No... I don't want her to just have any man; I want her to have a love story that will last the ages. I want her to find her true love and I want them to be remembered forever. I want them to be a changing force in the world. I don't want her to have to marry for the sake of marriage." Saffrona said suddenly, looking into her daughters peaceful face.

"You're right as always my love, to marry for politics is the worst kind."

"I'm glad Cid and Clara love each other and their daughter Fang."

"They were lucky." Basile reply, agreeing heartily.

"This is it then... this is what we give our girl... goodbye, my precious Vanille." The mother kissed her daughter's forehead, lowering the sleeping bundle into the bed, along side her cousin Fang.

"Goodbye my love, we leave this world to you now." Basile's kind face took one last look at his daughter's face, before joining hands with his loving wife and leaving to face their tragic fate.

_This was the start of my love story. This was my decided fate.  
_

* * *

The midday sun warmed the tiny village full of white blooming flowers, the village sparkled with a diamond like appearance, calmly beautiful in the sun. The white-gold sand caressed an imposing brown haired hunter's feet as she attempted to track something down.

"Vanille?" The brown haired woman dressed in a blue robe called as she walked down the beach, said girl's favourite place. The small town of Oerba was alive all except this tranquil beach.

"Vanille? Where are you?" The woman called out again, walking down a sloped path to the beachy soil that lead to the sea.

Under an alcove topped with verdant grass hair, sat a small girl of about 18 with bright coral hair and brilliant emerald eyes, who was curled up and looking miserable.

"Vanille?" The blue clad woman asked once more, "Oh there you are Vanille! Come on, you've gotta come with me, Vincent's waiting for you, you'll be married soon! You wouldn't want a bad start to a marriage"

"But Fang! I don't love him! I don't want to marry him! This was all a mistake." Vanille grabbed her lace, knee-length, white dress at the hems in annoyance.

"I know. I know." Fang replied, "Vanille, you gotta do this, you won't find another like him!"

"Maybe, maybe not." Vanille mused, "It just doesn't feel right! It feels like... There's another person out there for me, waiting." Vanille looked off across the sapphire sea, "he has eyes like the ocean... Hair like the white-gold sand. I just know it! One day I'll go with him, around gran pulse..."

"Oh yeah?" Fang sat on the ground next to Vanille, "When? How will you find him? I'd sure like to meet someone too, but how can we? Fang asked rhetorically. "In this village, we must marry for the continuation of our clans, there's no love in it anyway you look at it."

"My parent's didn't, they loved each other"

"They were the exception; come on Vanille, you know what I mean!"

"Do you believe me?" Vanille asked looking at fang directly in the eyes, green met green. "Do you believe I can find my true love?" Fang paused before answering.

"Of course I believe you, I'd be a bad cousin if I didn't! But Vanille you must, you're the daughter of the last mayor, you're the prized girl in the town."

"I'm just a trophy to all men."

"No Vanille, of course not! You will find this man with 'eyes like the ocean and hair like the white-gold sand', but not right now."

"Fang, I will find him! I don't care how far I must travel or how long it takes. Please, just help me." Vanille gaze had unbeatable determination and so much courage, none could doubt her.

"...okay. Vanille, if this is what you believe will happen then I trust you, but if this doesn't happen then don't come running to me!" Fang said relenting; she looked out across the sea before stretching and getting up, offering Vanille a hand. "Come on, let's go call off the wedding"

"Thank you Fang... I promise I'll find him." Vanille said taking the hand up, dusting off her knee-length white ceremonial dress. "Even if it's in another life time..."

"Any time, baby cousin." Fang said, nudging her younger companion. Vanille pushed her back, giggling.

_From that day forth, I knew that my own love story would be far different than anything I could've hoped for. On that day I broke hearts and pieced my own back together._

* * *

-500 years later-

Vanille and a boy on the cusp of turning 15 sat together looking out at the cerulean blue sky and the emerald trees and foliage. The flowers shone and the rivers trickled down like diamonds on a bed of gold soil. In that moment, they had a connection that not even a Behemoth or time itself could hope to break

"Didn't we promise to see Gran Pulse together?" Vanille asked Hope, one arm around her knees, the other leaning on the lime green grass that was warm from the hot sun.

"Uhh... When did we promise...?" The boy next to her asked in a state of confusion, his silver hair shining in the sun and his teal eyes rivaling the colour of the ocean.  
Vanille giggled, pausing to think.

"I don't know... Maybe in another life time!" She laughed getting up, looking around at the picturesque scenery, flowers of all colours, trees of all kinds, animals roaming free... Yes, now it seemed more like the Gran Pulse she remembered. The flowers seemed to brighten and the sun shined more sweetly than ever before. The breeze was more fragrant than ever; the trees swayed rhythmically in the wind and the sky regained a more azure hue. This would be the Gran pulse they would embrace. Together.

_"Keep smiling... I- It makes me happy when you smile"_

_Yes… then I knew it to be true, he was the love I'd found centuries ago._

* * *

That time, when I told her I loved her smile... I meant to tell her I loved her. How little I knew that I should've. If I had... maybe we would've had more time together, maybe we would've embraced each other sooner; maybe, just maybe, then she wouldn't have gone away. Maybe she wouldn't have had to watch me grow up, whilst I was completely and utterly powerless to do anything. I tried, and tried. I learned, and learned . Every single night that Vanille visited me was more incentive to free her. Every single time I suffered a knock back, it was all for her. So that maybe, just maybe, one day in the future we'd be able to live a life together. No - one day we will live together, as a family.

* * *

Later that day, the evening casted an orange glow over the foliage covered land of Gran Pulse as the sun burned on the edge of the horizon in a red glow. Fang and Vanille sat together admiring the scenery they'd known all their life, yet was foreign

"I swear, if that Sazh calls this place hell one more time, I'll send him down there!" Fang clenched her fists and looked to the sky.

"Fang! You can't do _that_!" Vanille giggled.

"You're just saying that because Sazh is like the stories of your old papa!" Fang looked at Vanille accusingly.

"Am not!"

"Are too"

"Whatever! Snow is just like your brother!"

"Heh… suppose he is!" Fang mused, reaching deep back into her memories of Oerba."And that would make Lightning my sister in law! Heh, now that's a Etro day dinner to remember!"

"I'd be related to them too... only Hope that we wouldn't be related to." Vanille said whistfully. _I could change that. If I had the courage.  
_

They paused to look out over the rapidly darkening scenery.

"Can you remember when Oerba was not in ruins? When the buildings were full of life and the sun was bright every day?"

"Yeah… the grass was bright green, and the sea was a pure teal colour…"

"Like your mystery man" Fang said lifting an eyebrow in humor.

"Do you still remember that time I almost got married? When I told you I felt like someone else was waiting for me?" Vanille asked, looking over at a group of bright sunflowers that had caught her attention.

"'Course I do! I remember how heart-broken that guy Vincent was too! Well, what about it? Do you remember who you thought it was?" Fang asked studying her best friends face.

"No… I don't remember" Vanille shook her head, clearing it of stray thoughts.

"So, you've found him in this deserted world then?" Fang asked sarcastically, chuckling to herself.

"Yeah... Yeah I found him." Vanille said, a smile of fulfillment curving at her lips.

_I knew I would do whatever it took to keep him safe, even to sacrifice my life._

* * *

-1 week later-

"Vanille!" Hope shouted. The stars reflected off his mirror like eyes as hundreds of eidolon crystals floated about the doomsday-esque sky creating an ethereal glow to juxtapose the situation.

Vanille looked at him with a reassuring gaze and smiled, Hope seemed to relax a tiny bit and resigned himself to her and Fang's inevitable fate. The shock was too raw to do anything, everything was too unreal to comprehend the consequences.

Later she spoke to him when the realization had truly set in, her had voice softly cradled him in his sleep; softly comforting him, reminding him of the promises they'd made together, of the blooming flowers they would see together.

Hope knew then that he would do anything in his power to save her, even create a new cocoon.

* * *

"Director Hope, we all know you're just trying to save your friends, why not just admit it?"

"Alyssa, you don't even know what you're talking about" Hope warned his ditsy assistant girl.

Vanille… it'd been 400 years since she was trapped within her crystal prison with Fang. Hope often traveled to Oerba, just to be with the place that contained the most memories of Vanille.

She often entered his dreams at night, they'd talk for hours - he knew her like no other person possibly could, even Fang and she knew him like the back of her hand. Every night, he wished so much that Vanille would be sleeping peacefully next to him when he awoke, but it never did. It caused him endless sorrow, much like the endless ocean in Oerba. But all things must end, including Oerba's ocean and Vanille's imprisonment.

"Director Hope? Director~?" Alyssa's voice played like a vice through Hope's day dreaming. Hope sighed and turned to face her.

"What's wrong Alyssa?" Hope asked boredly.

"The capsule's ready! Time to free your friends!" Hope snapped to attention internally. Finally - the day he'd dreamed of! He retraced his steps along the platinum sand beach, passing the Oerban sea by and away from his physical link to Vanille.

_I'll be back, my love. Soon. Then, we'll be together again._ He heard Vanille's soft giggle on the wind which made him smile as bright as day.

"What's got you so happy?" Alyssa's voice cut through his internal happiness.

"Nothing. It's not important." _To anyone but me._

He was right about his promise: he would even create a new cocoon to save her.

* * *

-500 years later-

Fianlly, it was over. They'd won, the world was safe once more. Serah and Noel where hailed as heros. Hope was too, but to a lesser extent; but he didn't mind, he had his rewards, sitting right here, right next to him.

The sound of cars whizzing outside was dull, the morning light streaming through the thin cream curtains into the room with the walls painted light orange. A couple sat on the bed tending to a four month old baby, reminiscing about old friends and places that they'd traveled to throughout time. The baby was affectionately gargling at her loving parents.

"Say, Hope, do you remember that day in the Yaschas Massif? When you teased me?" Vanille asked the silver haired 27 year old sitting next to her.

"Yeah, it was the first time I'd seen you blush" Hope said smiling at the memory, "What's up?" He asked concern at the edging his voice.

"When I said I'd promised to see Gran Pulse with you in another life time... I- I meant it. Back in Oerba, I promised I'd find you, and see Gran Pulse with you." Vanille said, looking down at the precious bundle in her arms; her now longer orange hair falling in front of the small bundle in her arms, where it was being played with. "I promise I'm not crazy." She laughed.

"Really?" Hope asked, "But how? I didn't even exist then." Hope's chrome-coloured eyebrows pulled together in confusion as he reached down to adjust the blanket around the small baby in Vanille's arms. "And I know you're crazy, but it's a good kind of crazy." His face widened in a smile.

"I was due to get married... But I called it off because I felt like there was someone I was destined to be with... Someone else waiting for me."

"Funny, I always felt a strange pull towards you. Even before we'd met, I always loved orange hair and green eyes… but none were as brilliant as yours. I guess this is what they call soul-mates."

"I knew it was you when I first saw you, your eyes are the colour of the sea in Oerba, and your hair is the colour of the sand. Oh, and what're soul-mates? Did you just make it up?"

Hope laughed, shaking his head. "Soul-mates are people who're drawn together."

"Oh." Vanille nodded her head in understanding, causing the baby to tug harder on Vanille's hair."Ow! Not so hard Aiko! Be nice to mummy!" She pouted. Hope laughed at the scene before him. _Goddess knows I've worked for this._

"Well, in any case, you were right... We have Aiko here to show for it" Hope said affectionately looking down at his daughter. Her hair like golden sand; her eyes like tree leaves. "It may have taken one thousand years, but it was worth it." Hope gently lifted up Vanille's face by her chin and looked adoringly into her eyes "Keep smiling, it makes me happy when you smile. And, I love you." Hope smiled at her, mirroring the scene from 500 years ago and what he'd meant to happen.

"Yes, this is the life time I was supposed to have."

* * *

I so want this to happen D:

Also, Aiko = love child... just in case you were curious!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! If you did then drop a review, but otherwise just keep on rolling!

Oh, P.S Serah and Lightning Live... because I mean why not in this fic? Doesn't really affect anything.

Later~ matta ne!

emstar1-1


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